Cancer
by Artemis Fowl II
Summary: Now the third part in 'The Fairy Project' Artemis is Dieing, Holly comforts him. Sequal to 'can a message come between friends' but is also stand alone. Turning point in 'CAMCBF' series! :COMPLETE:


A/N- well my great aunt jenny has terminal lung cancer so I did some research and a little plot bunny was born, just a random drabble, Artemis has cancer, Holly can't heal him. Consolation commences.

This takes place after 'CAMCBF' but is not necessarily a sequel.

I do not own Holly, Artemis, Butler or Juliet. I do however own No. 1, because the aliens who gave him to Eoin Colfer secretly work for me!

Cancer

It was a warm night; there was a perfectly clear sky, a full moon. The perfect night for fairies to be out, either completing the ritual or just flying around enjoying yourself. So I'll bet it doesn't take an intelligence of a centaur to know where Holly was.

"Full freaking moon, great night and here I am, babysitting a computer." Holy muttered, darkly, to herself.

The computer beeped quietly to itself.

"Why do I even need to? It's so stupid; the centaur has a mobile that goes off if anything happens. Stupid computer. Do I even need to be here anyway?"

In response the computer beeped, almost merrily.

"Stupid!" Holly said, kicking the unit to emphasise her point.

_**BEEP…BEEP…BEEP!**_

The computer shouted out at her.

"D'arvit! Nice computer, good computer… please stop wailing!" and she started to press every button she saw. After a couple of seconds it stopped wailing and was replaced by a heavy panting noise.

"D'arvit, what now?" she shouted at the blank screen.

"Hello to you to Holly." Artemis voice came out of the speakers weakly.

"Artemis? What's wrong?" Holly asked, concerned that her friend was having so much trouble breathing.

"I went to the hospital today, it turns out the cold I had was the flue. After some test though it also turns out that the flu is secondary to my lung cancer." Artemis said.

"Lung cancer?! I'll be right over." And before Artemis could say anything Holly had walked out of the room, automatically closing the connection, and was running down to Vinyáya's office.

Foaly had heard everything. His mobile had gone off as soon as Artemis had rung and when Holly had opened the connection she had indivertibly pressed the conference button. Everyone in the fancy restaurant had just heard the conversation. Nobody said anything.

"I have to go." Foaly said to his date. The female centaur looked across at him, not in a bored sort of way but admiringly.

"I know you do, make sure he gets better okay?" she said, kissing him on the cheek.

"I'll do my best." And Foaly pressed another button on his mobile phone, activating a teleporter in one of the orbiting satellites. After he had vanished and everyone had settled down again the waiter came over.

"This one is on the house miss; I hope your friend gets better." The waiter said.

Holly flew across Ireland as fast as she could. Vinyáya had cleared her for a long term absence due to illness (nowhere does it say who has to be ill!) and had given her a fast set of wings. It only took an hour for her to be flying over the roof of Fowl Manor.

As she landed and took off her helmet, not bothering to savour the surface air, she had already begun walking through the doorway.

"Holly, Artemis is upstairs." Butler's voice said, coming out of a small speaker set above the doorway, "third door on you right."

And Holly went up the stairs, into the third door to the right and burst into tears.

Foaly could see everything. Holly had taken the compulsory iris cam with her and even Foaly could tell Artemis wasn't in a good state. He was completely white and had the chemotherapy equipment rigged up to him. There was no sign of life except for the heart rate monitor beeping quietly in the background.

"He's not going to make it…" Foaly muttered but waited to see if anything would happen.

Holly sat on Artemis bed. She took his hand gently in hers and just sat there watching him breath for a while.

"You know, the first time I met you, I swore I would get revenge for you kidnapping me… I wonder if this is my revenge, in a rather ironic way. After a while I began to like you. I think I really knew after the coboi thing. I was so upset about the mind wipe that I took some pictures of you to keep." She sat there for a while longer. "I wonder if my magic could heal you. I suppose I should try. But what if it has an inverse effect. We had cancer once in haven. It killed three fairies because they tried to heal it away and it fed on the magic. Maybe this cancer is different though. Or maybe not. Come on Artemis, you are the only one who can figure this out." She looked at him again. "You can't just die Artemis, we still need you. I don't need you; I think I might go mad if you die though. I love you Artemis."

A/N should I end here? Should I end the story here?

Maybe I will… but not today!

At this Foaly was stuck. The book forbade fairies and humans having any sort of relationship. But Artemis was going to die in a few weeks and he had done so much for the fairy people. And Holly was his best friend.

_Damn these difficult decisions, I'll just let fate work her subtle magic, see what happens. Yeah, that'll work!_

It was two hours after Holly had arrived. She had sat on Artemis bed and held his hand the whole time.

"Holly, I… love… you… too…" Artemis gasped suddenly. Holly jumper, she hadn't meant for Artemis to hear that, never the less he had, for better of for worse.

_Wait, did I just think of that as marriage? I think I did! Damn._

"Artemis, don't worry, I'll get Foaly onto this, and we'll find the best warlocks and heal you!" Holly said, clinging onto the idea that she could save him.

"No Holly, the magic did this. It had a reaction with my lungs and tried to change them into fairy lungs. It thinks was fairy magic and thinks it is still inside a fairy, albeit a mutated fairy. It's trying to fix me. You can't help." And he subsided into a fit of coughing.

"Foaly, is this possible?" Holly muttered into her throat mike.

"No idea, he is the first human to take magic and with the factor of the time tunnel I don't know." Foaly said, quietly.

"Holly, remember the first time we met?" Artemis said.

"Yeah, you scared the mit'or out of me! Then shot me!" Holly exclaimed, jokingly, and reverting to gnomish swear words in her anxiety.

"Language Holly… I thought it would be the ultimate scam. I didn't realise how human you would be. I thought you would just be a faceless male creature. But instead I had kidnapped a little female fairy, who turned out to have a very attractive face." Holly blushed at the compliment.

"I couldn't let you go though. I had already committed myself. Then we met up again in the artic incident. That was fun, wasn't it!" he said, sarcasm dripping from is words like ink (I couldn't think of a better analogy).

"The artic incident, that was hellish! How on earth did you craw through that service pipe? Honestly, I get claustrophobic in small lifts!" Holly said.

"Well, I just thought that there were people who needed me. I couldn't let Butler, mulch… and you… down." He said, smiling at her. But even through his smile, Holly could see the immense pain in his eyes.

"Artemis, look we can find some warlocks and they can help you!" Holly said, pleadingly.

"No Holly, I have had an amazing life. And I have you to thank for it. You could have walked away after the gold arrived. But instead you healed my mother. Why?" he said.

"I felt pity for you, you had money, you had power but you were still so young, and it wasn't fair that you had to grow up so quickly because bad things had happened to you. I think I also thought it would help you turn around. That and I thought I might as well because you were going to be blue rinsed." She said, and finally noticed she had been holding his had thought the whole of their exchange. "How long o you have Artemis?" she said finally.

"Not long, not long at all. But I'm glad I got to see you again Holly. Thank you for everything… I will always love…." And with that he was racked with coughs again,. But this time they didn't stop. Holly watched as he went red, then white. Then stopped breathing altogether and lay still.

She wept silently. Tears streamed down her face. Artemis body was still convulsing but he wasn't moving a single muscle in his body.

Suddenly he started to shrink. His limbs getting smaller and his ears developing points. His features became more angular and more elfish. But it didn't matter. He wasn't with the world of the breathing anymore.

She stood up and turned her back on Artemis fowl forever.

But Artemis fowl hadn't turned his back on life.

"Holly, I think I shall need a new name."

And Holly Short, trained LEPrecon and best above ground agent for sector eight fainted where she stood.

Half an hour later she came round. She was on a big bed, and someone was holding her hand. She opened her eyes and looked into the bright blue ones opposite her.

"Artemis, you're an elf!"

"He's a what?!" came voices both from the doorway and from the speaker on Holly's jumpsuit.

"Artemis, why do I get the feeling this is going to be complicated?" Holly asked, sighing.

A/N that really is the ending. I think having arty the elfy should be interesting for my future stories. I think I may take a short break from Artemis fowl fics to write a Monk story, unless people don't want me too. If not WRITE A REVIEW!! Please press that little button that will make me really happy!

Oh and for the record he was going to die originally but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Sorry all those who want him to die! (If indeed you exist.) And I do hate Minerva so she will not feature in any of my stories…

ARTEMIS AND HOLLY FOREVER!!


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